PHR has joined a group of preeminent experts and NGOs calling for a non-partisan commission to investigate the detention, treatment and transfer of detainees following the attacks of September 11th, 2001. As PHR’s repeated calls for a commission have reiterated, only a thorough inquiry can ensure that the clear, legal prohibition against torture is upheld. The American people and the victims of abuse deserve to know the full nature of the detainee treatment policies implemented by the Bush Administration.

The statement was signed by: Juan E. Mendez, President of the International Center for Transitional Justice; Thomas Pickering, former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs; Judge William Sessions, former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Major General Antonio M. Taguba, USA (Ret.); and Rev. Dr. John H. Thomas, General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ. In addition, 18 leading human rights organizations have endorsed the statement.Here is the full statement and list of signers:

Statement on Commission Relating to Detention, Treatment, and Transfer of Detainees

We urge President Obama to appoint a non-partisan commission of distinguished Americans to examine, and provide a comprehensive report on, policies and actions related to the detention, treatment, and transfer of detainees after 9/11 and the consequences of those actions, and to make recommendations for future policy in this area. We believe all members of the commission must have reputations for putting the truth and the respect for our nation's founding principles ahead of any partisan advantage. Members should be persons of irreproachable integrity, credibility, and independence. Leading academics, retired judges and government officials, retired military officers and intelligence officials and human rights experts are examples of the types of profiles that should be sought. The President should solicit recommendations from the majority and minority leaders in both houses in the process of choosing commission members.

Juan E. Mendez, President, the International Center for Transitional Justice; Special Advisor to the Secretary-General of the UN on the Prevention of Genocide, 2004-2007; Commissioner, 2000-2003, and President, 2002, of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States

Thomas Pickering, Vice Chairman, Hills & Co., Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, 1996-2000Judge William Sessions, Partner, Holland and Knight LLP, Director of the FBI, 1987-1993, Judge, United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, 1974-1987

Major General Antonio M. Taguba, USA (Retired)

Rev. Dr. John H. Thomas, General Minister and President, United Church of Christ(Affiliations for Identification Only)

The following organizations have also endorsed the statement:

Amnesty International USA

The Brennan Center for Justice

The Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, New York University, School of Law

The Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas, University of California, Davis

The Center for Victims of Torture

The Constitution Project

The Human Rights Center, University of California, Berkeley

Human Rights First

Human Rights Watch

The International Center for Transitional Justice

The International Justice Network

The Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs

The National Institute of Military Justice

The National Religious Campaign Against Torture

The Open Society Institute

Physicians for Human Rights

The Rutherford Institute

Download PDF version

The New York Times Feb. 13 editorial on Zimbabwe’s new unity government got it partly right. That the country’s illegitimate president, Robert Mugabe, will not allow the new prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, to establish rule of law and bring much-needed relief to the seven million starving people is an accurate presupposition based on Mugabe’s past three decades of autocratic misrule.

Mr. Mugabe stole last year’s election after Mr. Tsvangirai won the first-round vote. The best solution would have been an end to Mr. Mugabe’s rule. But with Mr. Mugabe refusing to resign and key African leaders refusing to push him out, Mr. Tsvangirai apparently decided that the power-sharing deal was his best chance to rescue his foundering country. If there is any real hope, African leaders — especially South Africa’s — must pressure Mr. Mugabe to stop tormenting the opposition and let Mr. Tsvangirai do his job. And they must make clear that if Mr. Mugabe does not, they will finally stop protecting him.

It is perhaps misguided to think that African leaders alone will now begin pressuring Mugabe to share power and stop tormenting the opposition. Just last week at the African Union Summit in Addis, I witnessed the majority of African heads of state kowtow to Mugabe as he deftly side-stepped public censure for crimes against humanity and the collapse of the country’s public health system.

Instead, the UN Security Council should compel the government of Zimbabwe to relinquish control of its health services, water supply, sanitation, and disease surveillance to the United Nations. Only when the international community gets serious about its commitment to the global responsibility to protect civilians will Zimbabweans begin to enjoy their universal human rights.

It hurts that as we celebrate here today there are some who are in prison. I can assure you that they are not going to remain in those dungeons any day or any week longer.

Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's new Prime Minister, made this pledge to thousands of Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporters following his swearing-in ceremony on 11 February 2009 at Glamis Stadium in Harare. One week later, human rights advocate Justina Mukoko and MDC activists Ghandi Mudzingwa and Fidelis Chiramba remain in Chikurubi Maximum Prison where Zimbabwean security forces have tortured and starved these three civic leaders as well as some 30 other individuals.

Zimbabwean police, military, and CIO officers are skilled sadists who employ an array of techniques in their arsenal of torture: electrocution, falanga (beating the soles of the feet), genital mutilation, water boarding, bludgeoning, and burning to name a few. Government authorities are violating the most basic rights and freedoms of these detainees – some of whom have been imprisoned and held incommunicado in inhumane conditions for several months. Their health has severely deteriorated, and they have not received adequate medical attention.

That ZANU-PF has successfully retained control over the military, police, and security forces bodes poorly for an amelioration of the human rights situation. But Tsvangirai opted to join the unity government with his nemesis Mugabe as president. If he cannot wield enough power as prime minister to keep his pledge and have these men and women be released immediately, there is little hope Tsvangirai will be able to succeed in tackling even bigger challenges such as establishing rule of law, feeding seven million Zimbabweans who face starvation, or addressing the underlying causes of the current outbreaks in disease and collapse of the health system.

Newsweek’s 31 January interview with Zimbabwe’s central banker, Gideon Gono, is lamentable not only for its factual inaccuracies, but also for giving voice to a Mugabe henchman whose monetary policies have led to the collapse of the economy, shuttering of hospitals, and closing of schools.

As part of PHR's emergency assessment delegation, I traveled throughout Zimbabwe in December 2008 and found that a causal chain runs from Mugabe’s economic policies, to Zimbabwe’s economic collapse, food insecurity and malnutrition, and the current outbreaks of cholera, anthrax, and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. Reading the Newsweek interview, one incorrectly infers that international sanctions have caused Zimbabwe’s ruin.

NEWSWEEK: A lot of people have blamed you for Zimbabwe's economic collapse.

GONO: The West wants you to think it's because of mismanagement. But sanctions have had a devastating effect on the country. I cannot think of any genocide that is worse than that. By their very nature, sanctions are supposed to induce fear. It's like terrorism. It's callous.

These sanctions, employed by only a handful of countries, restrict access to assets squirreled away in foreign bank accounts of some 160 of Mugabe’s cronies who have looted humanitarian aid over the years to the detriment of starving civilians. I saw cases of pellagra, rare gastrointestinal anthrax (caused by eating infected carrion), and marasmic Kwashiorkor – all resulting from extreme food insecurity, not from Gono’s inability to access his private American bank account.

Interestingly, the Newsweek interviewer queried the central banker on the current cholera epidemic that rages in his country.

NEWSWEEK: Many people have called the government's handling of the cholera epidemic a crime.

GONO: Cholera is under control. Every year there is a cholera outbreak in southern Africa; the epicenter of the disease just happened to be in Zimbabwe this year.

I assure you, vibrio cholerae is not “under control” in Zimbabwe. In fact, the case fatality rate for this easily treatable and entirely preventable disease is more than 20 times the international norm in some areas. Cholera continues to spread in Zimbabwe and across its borders because the Mugabe regime has failed to address the underlying causes of the disease: broken water and sewerage pipes, poor sanitation, and untreated water.

State funds from Gono’s central bank could be used to fix such essential public health services; instead, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe serves more as a personal checking account for Gono and Mugabe than as a means for providing succor to the seven million Zimbabweans who are currently dependent on international food aid.

Violence and rape have become hallmarks of the lives of Darfuri women. Many women were raped in the torrent of violence that forced them to flee their villages. And the risk of violence is still all-too-real — many are assaulted when leaving the camps to gather the wood they need to cook food for their families.

This past November, Physicians for Human Rights sent a team of three physicians and a human rights investigator to eastern Chad to interview Darfuri refugee women about how their lives have been affected by this violence.

PHR announces the launch of a new microsite, darfuriwomen.org, where over the next few months we will share with you their stories, images from daily life in the camps, and our findings. We’ll also ask you to take actions to both protect women from violence and treat the women whose lives have already been irrevocably changed by this horror.

We welcome you to darfuriwomen.org and look forward to working together with you to end this scourge.

(Cross-posted on Darfuri Women.)

As Senior Coordinator of PHR's Health Action AIDS East Africa Program, I get frequent opportunities to be in the field and connect with amazing human rights activists from the region. Last week in Kigali, Rwanda, I met with two incredible young doctors – Dr. Davis Kashake Karengya and Dr. Charles Ntare – who have devoted their careers to human rights advocacy, with a specific focus on ending violence and torture in Rwanda.

Rwanda’s recent history of violence is well known. As members of the pioneer class of medical students after the 1994 genocide that killed over 800,000 Rwandans, Davis and Charles wanted to be part of rebuilding and healing their community in a way that reached beyond the provision of medical services. After attending a three-week training on human rights, Dr. Karengya returned to the medical school to share what he had learned while networking with anti-torture advocates from across Africa with his classmates. In these meetings, the students envisioned a collaboration between medical students, doctors, lawyers, and human rights activists to address the continuing psychological and physical burden of torture and violence in Rwanda.

On September 5, 1999, just over five years after the genocide, Le Forum des Activistes contre la Torture et la Violence (Forum for Activists against Torture and Violence) – also known as FACT Rwanda – was born. The road has not been easy for FACT and its co-founders. Of the 60 doctors, lawyers, and human rights activists that founded FACT, only about half remain engaged. Some left Rwanda for better professional opportunities abroad, some found the struggle of advocating for human rights too difficult to sustain, and still others were forced to leave the country during times when the climate for human rights activists in Rwanda was unfriendly.

Davis and Charles, who both hold staff positions within the organization, have remained committed to building and growing the organization. In its 10 years of existence, FACT has taken on crucial issues others were unwilling to address – the government’s use of torture and its refusal to ratify the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the psychosocial and physical rehabilitation of torture survivors across the region, advocacy to promote the rights of prisoners, and education about torture to the Rwanda National Police.

Today, FACT works to both prevent torture and violence through education and advocacy and to rehabilitate victims of torture and violence through its Rehabilitation Centre located in Kigali. With a network of counselors, psychologists, lawyers and medical doctors, FACT provides a full range of rehabilitation services to survivors who otherwise would have no place to turn. Through their outreach services they are able to follow-up with their clients and link them to additional social support networks within their communities. On the prevention side, FACT has also started human rights clubs in schools, local police and defense offices, and prisons in order to make sure that all Rwandans understand and embrace their fundamental human rights.

“One of our biggest successes has been in the area of bringing to light the issue of torture in Rwanda,” Davis told me from their Rehabilitation Centre in Kigali. “No one wanted to believe that torture was still happening in Rwanda. After years of advocacy and pressure, the Government of Rwanda ratified the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment just last year.”

“Rwanda has a very young population . . . we like to say that we are being ‘born-again,’” said Charles. “The prevention work that we are doing in schools by starting human rights clubs and educating young people has been pivotal in the transformation and growth of Rwanda. These are our future leaders, and we are ensuring that they understand the concept and the importance of human rights.”

The resources are never enough. FACT finds that their funders are more interested in prevention than in rehabilitation, which has limited the growth of the Rehabilitation Centre and the number of clients they are able to serve each month. And although the founders of FACT recognize that prevention is crucial, the medical and psychosocial support that the center provides to victims of violence and torture fills a huge void in a region where mental health and social support services are severely limited. Charles and Davis keep working to educate potential funders about the immense needs of survivors of torture and hope that their vision of rehabilitation centers in at least five provinces throughout Rwanda will soon be realized.

I am in Rwanda working with the Rwanda Medical Association on promoting a stronger health sector response to sexual and gender-based violence in the country, and the prevention and treatment services that organizations like FACT provide to victims of violence are an essential piece of this puzzle. Health providers in public health facilities in Rwanda (and elsewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa) have limited access to wrap-around services for their patients, yet these referrals and linkages are one of the key elements of a comprehensive response to violence. Knowing that they can refer to an organization like FACT makes health professionals more willing to identify and assist victims of violence.

As they approach the 10 year anniversary of founding of FACT Rwanda, Davis, Charles and the many other medical doctors, lawyers, and human rights advocates who had a vision of ending torture and violence in Rwanda should be proud of how far they have come. The journey is not finished, but the progress is inspiring.

Physicians for Human Rights joined human rights and religious organizations in an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief, submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court on January 28, 2009 in the Al-Marri v. Spagone case. Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, a Qatari national, has been detained as an “enemy combatant” in the United States in prolonged isolation for five years, reportedly “driven nearly insane by months of punishing isolation and sensory deprivation.” The brief argues that al-Marri’s transfer and detention were illegal, exceeding the government’s detention authority, and motivated by the government’s intention to employ highly coercive interrogation methods. The brief asks the Supreme Court to find al-Marri’s designation as an “enemy combatant” improper and hold that his detention is unauthorized.Download the brief

• Brief of Amici Curiae – Human Rights and Religious Organizations in Support of Ali Saleh Kahlah Al-Marri

Yesterday, President Obama lifted the spirits of all who oppose torture and hope for a return to the rule of law in the United States. In a series of three executive orders, President Obama made major reversals on Bush Administration interrogation and detention policies.

President Barack Obama began overhauling U.S. treatment of terror suspects Thursday, signing orders to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, shut down secret overseas CIA prisons, review military war crimes trials and ban the harshest interrogation methods.With his action, Obama started changing how the United States prosecutes and questions al-Qaida, Taliban or other foreign fighters who pose a threat to Americans – and overhauling America's image abroad, battered by accusations of the use of torture and the indefinite detention of suspects at the Guantanamo prison in Cuba."The message that we are sending the world is that the United States intends to prosecute the ongoing struggle against violence and terrorism and we are going to do so vigilantly and we are going to do so effectively and we are going to do so in a manner that is consistent with our values and our ideals," the president said.The centerpiece order would close the much-maligned Guantanamo facility within a year, a complicated process with many unanswered questions that was nonetheless a key campaign promise of Obama's. The administration already has suspended trials for terrorist suspects at Guantanamo for 120 days pending a review of the military tribunals.

Dennis Blair, Obama's nominee for Director of National Intelligence, made further encouraging statements during his confirmation hearing on Tuesday.

During a hearing that occurred as President Obama signed new executive orders rolling back Bush Administration detention and interrogation policies, Mr. Blair signaled a new approach on such controversial issues as eavesdropping without warrants and harsh interrogation methods used by the Central Intelligence Agency.“The intelligence agencies of the United States must respect the privacy and civil liberties of the American people, and they must adhere to the rule of law,” Mr. Blair said in testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee….“I do not and will not support any surveillance activities that circumvent established processes for their lawful authorization,” he said in the testimony. “I believe in the importance of independent monitoring, including by Congress, to prevent abuses and protect civil liberties.”In an unusual comment from a man who will head the most secret agencies of government, he said, “There is a need for transparency and accountability in a mission where most work necessarily remains hidden from public view.”He said that if confirmed, he would “communicate frequently and candidly with the oversight committees, and as much as possible with the American people.”On the issue of detainee treatment, perhaps the most divisive security issue since 2001, Mr. Blair called torture “not moral, legal or effective” and said any interrogation program would have to comply with the Geneva Conventions, the Convention against Torture and the Constitution.

In a statement yesterday PHR's CEO, Frank Donaghue, said:

PHR applauds President Obama's swift action to reclaim America's legacy as a nation committed to the rule of law. The reforms enacted today represents a victory for human rights and a blow against the use of torture.

PHR's work on US torture is not yet done, however. Donaghue continued:

The desire to turn the page on the past seven years of detainee abuse and torture by US forces is understandable. However, President Obama, Congress and the health professions will not have fulfilled their obligation to the Constitution and medical ethics if we settle only for reform without accountability.

PHR is calling for:

• A non-partisan commission to investigate the authorization, legal justification, and implementation of the Bush Administration's regime of psychological and physical torture—including a subgroup tasked with investigating the participation of health professionals in detainee abuse.
• An end to the use of Behavioral Science Consultants (BSCs) in interrogations. The continued use of BSCs violates medical ethics and subverts the traditions of the healing professions.
• A review by the President's task force of US interrogation and transfer policies to revoke Appendix M of the Army Field Manual. This section allows the use of sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation, and isolation—tactics which can constitute torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment under U.S. and international law.

Further Reading

• REVIEW AND DISPOSITION OF INDIVIDUALS DETAINED AT THE GUANT?NAMO?BAY NAVAL BASE AND CLOSURE OF DETENTION FACILITIES (Obama Executive Order)
• REVIEW OF DETENTION POLICY OPTIONS (Obama Executive Order)
• ENSURING LAWFUL INTERROGATIONS (Obama Executive Order)
• PHR Praises President Obama's Executive Orders Ending Illegal US Detention and Interrogation Program; Accountability for Perpetrators of Torture Still Needed (PHR Press Release)

With hope and a renewed sense of pride in my country, today I am happy to applaud President Obama for finally repealing the harmful Global Gag Rule, an action that marks a significant step towards combating the global AIDS epidemic, ensuring women’s rights worldwide, and realizing the right to health for all.

Last month, my work at PHR took me to Kenya, where I saw first-hand the damaging effects that the Global Gag Rule had on the delivery of comprehensive care and prevention messaging to women. The health professionals, advocates, and women with whom I met were resolute on the importance of integrating HIV/AIDS services with reproductive health services, including family planning, to address the growing feminization of the AIDS epidemic. But the Global Gag Rule had greatly hindered the scaling up of service integration.

The Global Gag Rule (GGR) prohibited health organizations that received US dollars for family planning from performing abortions, making referrals for safe abortion services, and supporting safe abortion laws and policies, even with funding from other sources. Although the GGR did not apply to PEPFAR HIV services, mixed messages were repeatedly given to recipient organizations, resulting in the lack of integration of HIV and family planning services.

Despite the lack of US funded support, Kenya was able to successfully start integrating services. A theme that came up often during my travels was that integrating family planning and HIV/AIDS services helps to ensure no opportunities are missed.

“Women coming for family planning services are sexually active – they need to know their HIV status,” explained Emma, a nurse and advocate for the integration of services. Furthermore, women who seek prevention, care, and treatment for HIV/AIDS must be provided with reproductive health services, including family planning. The repeal of the Global Gag Rule will now allow programs to expand the integration of these services without fear of reprisal.

The right to health demands that health systems be accessible, available, affordable, and of good quality, yet women in particular face much stigma and many socioeconomic barriers. Integration of these services breaks down barriers to care for the most vulnerable women by providing access to multiple services at multiple entry points, giving them a wider range of opportunities to connect to the health system.

While visiting a clinic outside Nairobi, I spoke with Alice, a young mother who received family planning and HIV testing through a local NGO. Alice was able to access these services because they were made available as a package in one location. If this were not the case, she might not seek the services at all. The repeal of the Global Gag Rule offers hope that the health of more women like Alice will no longer be at the mercy of ideologically driven policies that block the implementation of comprehensive health programs.

Today, President Obama took an important step, but there is much more work ahead to implement integrated services on a global scale. We, as advocates, must remain committed to scientific and evidenced-based policies that promote women’s health rights. While reflecting on the opportunities that lie ahead in a world without the stifling effects of the Global Gag Rule, I think about Anne, a young mother who received comprehensive family planning and HIV testing services in a safe and comfortable environment thanks to Kenya’s initiatives to integrate services. When asked what it meant to be able to receive all these services together, she simply said, it means “I am free. Free to go on with life.”